lilly and the sponge.

last night lilly was talking to max;

lilly: "no, max i don't have time for this right now!"

and out of the blue, this morning to me in the car;

lilly: "mommy, i don't think your being grateful for everything you have."

it's crazy the things i say are now coming out of her mouth. kids are like little sponges. i need to start watching what i say, i now live with my own little parrot:)

do you think the sponge is still soaking things up when she's asleep?

red nose... take two.

when is this poor little button nose going to get a break :)

max's nose this morning.

max's nose late this afternoon.

wordless wednesday

Carly.

over this past year i have found the Down syndrome blogging community to be very loving, and supportive. i feel lucky to be following so many of these wonderful families through their journey in life... even though with most of them being so far in distance from me, in someway they are all so close to my heart.

yesterday the world lost a beautiful little girl named Carly,

i know the heartache that i am going through, i can't imagine the heartbreak her family must be feeling at this time.

i just wanted to share this with all of you, so you know what the world has lost, and how luck God is right now to have loving Carly by his side.

the wait.

the exciting wait for the garbage truck!

wordless wednesday

pease say a prayer.

please say a prayer for our little friend Micah, he is very, very sick right now and could really use our support.

a three year olds mind.

yesterday, i was tell lilly our plans for the weekend.

me: on sunday i have cousin erin's wedding shower.

lilly: is daddy going?

me: no, it's just for girls... no boys.

lilly: i'm a girl, can i come too?

(i should have seen that coming)

me: well i guess so, then daddy can do his running with just max.

today.

me: lilly lets get ready to go to the wedding shower.

(she follows me up stairs, she headed into her room)

me: lilly we need to take a shower and get ready before we go.

lilly: no mom, we are going to take a shower with everyone else at the wedding.

oh, to be three.

check list.

lilly's check list for the morning.

1. have mom paint my fingernails and toenails. --check
2. climb the rock wall. --check

3. call my little brother over . --check

4. yell to my brother step by step instructions how to climb up the wall. --check

5. watch my little brother scream bloody murder, when his attempts fail at trying to get up. --check

flash back

i tend to save every email and recently thought i should go through and delete some of them. i came across one i sent to my friends.

this is part of it:)

On Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 3:59 PM, Sara Pingel <spingen16@hotmail.com> wrote:

lilly is getting so big and saying so much... every night before nick brings her to bed i tell her i love you and give her a kiss. for the first time last week tuesday before bed she came running to me, came really close to my face and said I LOVE YOU and kissed me. my heart melted. i never heard anything so sweet come out of a tiny person, i can say that is one moment i hope to never forget. like i said from the start everything is going good... life is good.......

lilly in july 2008

life is good.

red nose.

max's nose and the concrete lightly came in contacted the other day, nick and i have been calling him rudolph ( i wonder if that nickname will stick?)

i have been asked a simple question.

i have now been asked a few times so far in this pregnancy if i was scared. i assumed they meant to have another child with Down syndrome. i wanted to share my response with everyone just in case some of you were wondering but afraid to ask. my response was and is:

no. i am not scared.

two nights before i had my first ultrasound with this baby i had a dream, i dreamt that i was having twins. i was holding these two beautiful babies one in each arm and notice one of them was born with Ds and the other one was not. i can't express the happiness that filled me in my dream. i said to myself this is wonderful! i now have two typical children and two children born with Down syndrome:) now this may sound odd to those of you without a child with some sort of gift like Down syndrome but i'm hoping a few of you out there understand where i'm coming from. it was nice because i felt max would have another sibling who would have just a bit more in common (not that i feel lilly or this other soon to be family member isn't going to be close with max but to have someone else in the family with Ds... wow, that would be wonderful!). anyways when i went to my ultrasound and found out there is just one baby in there, i said to my husband i was a little sad that my dream wasn't true:( not that i am not super excited and thrilled to have this one baby in there because i am:)

i shared with these people that if i could take the "Down syndrome" out of max, I WOULD NOT! that is part of what makes max who he is and i love it:) now, i can see if max had major health issues and if Ds was a part of that, maybe that would change my opinion. but he IS a healthy, happy, beautiful little boy. just like lilly, max is going to and already in my book has made such a positive impact on the world, my world.

when max was first born, i can say that i had feelings and long discussions with nick on having another child. about the many reason i felt that lilly would need that other sibling to be there to help her with future issues and just to have another person in the family to talk to. now since max's little personality is shining through and to see lilly and her little brother interacting together just like any other sibling, not to mention all of the wonderful families that have come into our life, lilly's life since having max, i no longer feel that way.

before nick and i started trying to have another baby i told nick i no longer felt that way, and that i wanted to have this third baby here in our life because i think our family has so much to offer another life. there is so much love in this family, i want another child to grow up with this love, acceptance, and appreciation for life.

and yes by max being born with Down syndrome i am more likely then the average person to have another child with Ds even though in max's case it was an act of God... not genetic. so i guess whatever God has in store again i will be more than happy to take. again no, i am not scared i am excited to see what i am a part of creating:) Down syndrome or not:)

new swing set!

today we had my mom, dad, the kilgas and the schultz families over to help set up our new swing set! it was a beautiful day, the sun was out and with no wind it made for a really warm day:)

this is a picture of the start of the project.
a little more then half way:)
nick, ben and adam working:)

some of the kids jumped on as soon as the swings were up! time for a lunch break.

the finished swing set... in the back of all the hard works relaxing:)

lilly, her cousin and her new neighbor friend playing tea party in her little house:)

too cute:)

max's first time down the slide.

he loved it.

lilly and a few of her cousins playing:)

max walking around the yard with his little walker:)

max standing:)

this morning max and i spent some one on one time together:) we wanted to do a little practicing of standing on his own.

a few kisses of encouragement:)

i never thought of letting him lean on anything to practice standing and his pt lisa came over for a visit last thursday and did this with him... i was shocked by how long he stood there by himself:)

wooo whoo max!

way to go max!

i can't get back fast enough to get a picture with his whole body in it.

with all that hard work of standing on his own... it's time to sit:)

easter pictures

hope everyone had a wonderful easter :)

grandma and grandpa elrick with lilly and max.

max opening his presents:)

max got a green ball that smells like a lime.

what kid doesn't love opening presents! lilly and her new barbie.

now let the easter egg hunt begin!

lilly found an egg!

max contemplating "should i eat this grass?"

daddy and lilly looking for eggs:)

aiden checking on max:)

such a sweet moment.

i wasn't able to get lilly or max to look at me, so... and action shot of them looking at a stick works for me:)

i feel really good about this picture:) it's hard to get a perfect one of nine kids.

grandma minten, lilly, max, and aunt jenny.

grandma pingel gave max a chip and he just sat in his chair as happy as could be and continued to ask for more when every chip was gone:) what a good little boy:)

we had the pingel side over for supper, it was a really nice night. the kids played outside for a large part of the night. over all the day was great, we all had a good time seeing all of the cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and great grandparents.

aiden's birthday

today aiden turns 4!!! we had a fun filled day with cousins:) starting at aunt jessie and uncle ben's house then off to a movie:)

lilly and the birthday boy:)

max just hanging out with his big cousins:)

smile max:)

pizza and cake! yum:)
lilly super excited to watch her first movie at the movie theater, it was "how to train your dragon" it was a really cute movie:)

lilly and aiden waiting for the movie to start:)

aiden fell asleep as soon as the movie started.

cheese:)

the kids after the movie:)

max is missing out of this picture because grandma minten watched him so i was able to go along:) thanks again grandma minten:)